But sir, it's only wafer-thin!

[steveisgood]

 I've put off long enough talking about this issue, and its high time I chimed in.

Here is the very brief primer of what happened so far:
1) Some university kid rabble-rouses at a Catholic mass and steals the eucharist, holding it "hostage" (kinda reminds me of the 'don't taze me, bro' kid).
2) Parishoners violently try to get it back from him. He

Comments

[steveisgood]

PART 2 of 2
I agree with the entrapment comment, as this douchy kid started all this, but if the Catholic League and Vatican (two entities who almost never get along) were so high minded, they would have acted with more decorum than this kid, certainly not try to get him expelled (especially after he returned the eucharist, and apologized....and again, this was not a university event....the Catholic League is merely exploiting the fact that he is a student, and therefore vulnerable....if not to the law, then to the university).

As for PZ, he can be a bit a a mega-douche at times, but his point was to mock those who likened this to a kidnapping. If someone will devalue a human life to be equivalent to a cracker, I agree with PZ. And its not just lone internet flamers or some "church folks reacting badly" out there making the comparison....Susan Fani, a spokesperson for the local diocese said "We don't know 100% what Mr. Cooks motivation was, however, if anything were to qualify as a hate crime, to us this seems like this might be it." By defintion, the motivation behind the crime makes (or doesn't make) it a hate crime, so if they're not 100% sure of the motivation, they can't make that charge. Father Migeul Gonzalez (of the same diocese) said, "Imagine if they kidnapped somebody and you make a plea for that individual to please return that loved one to the family." Let's remember, the kid DID return the eucharist and apologized in an effort to stop all this hooey (and death threats), but the church and Catholic League didn't let it stop there. Bill Donahue even said that this was "...beyond hate speech"

The news is replete with stories of real people being kidnapped: daughters, couples, missionaries, soldiers etc. We also often hear about violent hate-crimes, such as the Jena 6, or the murder of Matthew Sheppard, or Jamed Byrd Jr. PZ hit the nail right on the head when he said, "Can you possibly diminish the abuse of real human beings any further?"

If PZ were to further this insanity and convert a eucharist into a pac-man (well, that's what I would do, cause I think pac-man totally rules and it would be way-funny) or something, it wouldn't be to piss off more catholics...it will be done DESPITE the fact that some catholics will get pissed. It's to stand up to people who threaten free speech(douchebaggy though it was) with violence and imprisonment, even after they get what they wanted in the first place!

I wrote in response to this whole embarassing debacle (your response is not the debacle I refer to, just for clarification) for the same reason you did, to not have my silence imply consent.

Word bitch. Phantoms is like a mall-fucker.